EHG2893 - Trial trenching - Dalmore Farm, Alness

A trial trenching evaluation was undertaken by Highland Archaeology Services between October and December 2005 on a proposed housing development site at Dalmore, Alness. The site consisted of three large fields which had been allocated for housing development. Thirty-seven trial trenches, covering approximately 2.5 acres, were excavated to provide a site sample of over 10%. The entire area formed part of RAF Alness during the Second World War, and had clearly been disturbed by military activity as well as subsequent site clearance. A scatter of fragmentary artefacts from that period was noted within the topsoil. Beneath this, site clearance had been thorough and the subsoil comprised clean, natural mixed periglacial sands and gravels with some areas of rounded stones. A number of possible features were investigated that proved to be the result of tree roots and animal burrowing, but three areas require further investigation. One of these (Trench 35), though very disturbed, contained a large number of early Bronze Age ritual pottery sherds. Apart from targetted fieldwork to clarify these three areas, no further archaeological fieldwork was proposed. <1> <2> A report on the prehistoric pottery from the site was produced by Beverley Ballin Smith. <3> The excavation assemblage was submitted to Treasure Trove (TT 159/13) and allocated to Inverness Museum. <4>